Home
Tutorials
Tutorials show you how to use Simcenter STAR-CCM+ for various applications in a step-by-step format with recommendations for setup, initialization and steps of the solution process specific to the application. Macro and simulation files are available for download for a large proportion of cases.
Electrochemistry
The following tutorial demonstrates chemical reactions induced by an electrical current.
Solid Oxide Fuel Cell
Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) harness the chemical energy that is released by electrochemical reactions and convert it to electrical energy. SOFCs typically consume hydrogen and oxygen and only produce water as a waste product.
Running the Simulation
For highly diffusive problems like this, increasing the under-relaxation factors of the solvers helps accelerate convergence. With electromagnetic forces being strong forces in their nature, it is important to have well converged simulation results for the electrodynamic potential before converging the other physical quantities like the flow velocities, or species concentrations. In Simcenter STAR-CCM+, convergence can be achieved by using the Presolve feature for the electric potential solver.

Share

Link: copied

Breadcrumb: copied

Tutorials
Tutorials show you how to use Simcenter STAR-CCM+ for various applications in a step-by-step format with recommendations for setup, initialization and steps of the solution process specific to the application. Macro and simulation files are available for download for a large proportion of cases.
- Using Tutorial Macros and Files
  Macros, input files, and final simulation files for a range of tutorials are provided as an optional download package on the Support Center website. These macros and final simulation files are provided as an aid to the written tutorials, so that you can check your final results against the downloaded files, or against a simulation that is built and run using the macros.
- Introduction
  Welcome to the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ introductory tutorial. In this tutorial, you explore the important concepts and workflow. Complete this tutorial before attempting any others.
- Foundation Tutorials
  The foundation tutorials showcase the major features of Simcenter STAR-CCM+ in a series of short tutorials.
- Geometry
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for creating and working with parts and 3D-CAD.
- Mesh
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various STAR-CCM+ features for building CFD meshes.
- Incompressible Flow
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for incompressible fluid flows as well as porosity and solution recording
- Compressible Flow
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for compressible fluid flows as well as harmonic balance.
- Heat Transfer and Radiation
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for heat transfer, radiation, and thermal comfort.
- Multiphase Flow
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for simulating multiphase fluid flow problems
- Discrete Element Method
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for simulating Discrete Element Method problems
- Motion
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various STAR-CCM+ features for simulating problems with moving geometries and meshes, dynamic fluid body interaction, and rigid body motion:
- Reacting Flow
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for simulating reacting flows such as combustion.
- Solid Stress
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for computing deformation, strain, and stresses in solid regions. They also show how such computations can be coupled to the fluid behavior in an analysis of fluid-structure interaction.
- Aeroacoustics
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for solving aeroacoustic simulations.
- Electromagnetism
  The following tutorials illustrate features for solving problems that involve electromagnetic fields.
- Electrochemistry
  The following tutorial demonstrates chemical reactions induced by an electrical current.
  - Electroplating
    Electroplating is a technique that is commonly used in industry to deposit a metal coating on parts. The part that requires coating sits within an electrolytic solution that contains metal ions. A current is then induced through the electrolyte, between the part acting as the cathode, and an anode that is made of the same metal as the metal ions. In this tutorial, you simulate electroplating of a plastic grille part, which is pre-coated with copper and nickel, using chromium ions.
  - Solid Oxide Fuel Cell
    Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) harness the chemical energy that is released by electrochemical reactions and convert it to electrical energy. SOFCs typically consume hydrogen and oxygen and only produce water as a waste product.
    - Prerequisites
      The instructions in this tutorial assume that you are already familiar with certain techniques in Simcenter STAR-CCM+.
    - Loading an Existing Simulation
      For this tutorial, you use an existing simulation file that contains pre-prepared geometry, a mesh operation that is ready to execute, regions, and interfaces. A selection of field functions are also supplied as a java macro file.
    - Defining Electrochemical Reaction Properties Using Field Functions
      You use custom field functions to define enthalpies, thermodynamic polynomial data, the equilibrium potential, and the equilibrium potential temperature derivative for all reactions within the fluid domains of the fuel cell.
    - Selecting Physics Models
      You define separate solid continua for the anode and cathode current collectors, the solid oxide electrolyte membrane (which separates the anode and cathode), and the tubes. Then you define separate fluid continua for the air and fuel domains.
    - Setting Up the Porous Phases
      You create the anode and cathode porous phases and select the relevant phase models.
    - Setting Material Properties
      For all continua, select material components and adjust material properties.
    - Setting Initial Conditions
      You set the initial temperature, electric potential values, and mole fractions of the fuel and air streams.
    - Defining Surface Reactions
      Electrochemical reactions that occur at the surfaces between the electrodes and the electrolyte are defined manually.
    - Setting Up the Regions and Interfaces
      You specify which continua each of the regions use, and define the properties and values for each region.
    - Generating the Mesh
      Now that the shell region interface is created, you can execute the pre-prepared mesh.
    - Assigning the Surface Reactions
      The cathodic and anodic reactions take place at the cathodic and anodic triple phase boundaries respectively. The triple phase boundaries are represented by interfaces at both sides of the solid oxide electrolyte membrane—between the porous anode and the porous cathode.
    - Setting Up the Boundary and Interface Conditions
      Each region has specific boundary conditions to define.
    - Checking the Conservation of Current, Energy, and Mass
      In this part of the tutorial, you set up reports and generate monitors and plots. These plots check the balance of current, energy, and mass, respectively, throughout the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC).
    - Vizualizing Concentration and Molar Flux Distribution of Oxygen
      To compare the mole fraction of oxygen alongside the consumption of oxygen on the cathode triple-phase boundary (TPB), you set up a scalar scene for each quantity.
    - Running the Simulation
      For highly diffusive problems like this, increasing the under-relaxation factors of the solvers helps accelerate convergence. With electromagnetic forces being strong forces in their nature, it is important to have well converged simulation results for the electrodynamic potential before converging the other physical quantities like the flow velocities, or species concentrations. In Simcenter STAR-CCM+, convergence can be achieved by using the Presolve feature for the electric potential solver.
    - Analyzing the Results
      When the simulation is complete, review the scenes and plots.
    - Summary
      This tutorial demonstrated electrochemistry for a solid oxide fuel cell.
    - Appendix: User Field Function and Parameters Properties
      Names, dimensions, definitions, and formulation of the user-defined field functions and parameters that are used in the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell tutorial.
    - Bibliography
- Battery
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for setting up a battery model:
- Automation
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ automation and macro features.
- Design Exploration
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various features for running design exploration studies in Design Manager.
- Coupling with CAE Codes
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for coupling with CAE codes:
- Analysis Methods
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for analysing and visualizing simulation data.
- Simcenter STAR-CCM+ In-cylinder
  The tutorials in this set illustrate features for simulating internal combustion engines in Simcenter STAR-CCM+ using the dedicated add-on Simcenter STAR-CCM+ In-cylinder.

Running the Simulation

For highly diffusive problems like this, increasing the under-relaxation factors of the solvers helps accelerate convergence. With electromagnetic forces being strong forces in their nature, it is important to have well converged simulation results for the electrodynamic potential before converging the other physical quantities like the flow velocities, or species concentrations. In Simcenter STAR-CCM+, convergence can be achieved by using the Presolve feature for the electric potential solver.

Specify solver settings and stopping criteria, and run the simulation:

Edit the Solvers node and set the following properties:


Node	Property	Setting
Segregated Species	Under-Relaxation Factor	0.995
Segregated Energy	Fluid Under-Relaxation Factor	1.0
Segregated Energy	Solid Under-Relaxation Factor	1.0

Note that velocity and pressure solvers must generally operate with consistent under-relaxation parameters, see section Segregated Flow Guidelines.

Set the electric potential solver to run during initialization—before the other solvers.

Select the Solvers > Electric Potential > Expert Initialization node and set Method to Presolve.
The default settings for the Presolve subnode are sufficient to obtain a reasonable convergence of the electrodynamic potential prior to solving the other physical quantities.
Select the Stopping Criteria > Maximum Steps node and set Maximum Steps to 325.
Click (Run).